Major League Baseball threatens to walk away from Minor League Baseball entirely mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/12/14/maj… via @HardballTalk
@HardballTalk Basically: in the space of about 48 hours, Rob Manfred has gone from being angry at the existence of public negotiations to negotiating in public, angrily.
@HardballTalk The MLB/MiLB battle is two things, really. It's (1) MLB using its power to get what it wants and it still may very well get what it wants; but it's also (2) A story of just how ill-prepared Rob Manfred was for negotiations to become public and to be questioned about anything.
@HardballTalk Take away the fireworks and I think, at bottom, MLB IS going to be able to bulldoze its way to a deal that favors its interests and bashes the minors into dust, relatively speaking. There is immense power in this relationship on MLB's side.
@HardballTalk Still, Manfred has gotten public pushback he hadn't anticipated and has become petulant and whiney at the drop of a hat. Not a good look at all for the league. Suggestive of its arrogance. HOW DARE SOMEONE FIGHT BACK!
@HardballTalk Again, I think MLB maintains the upper hand here with MiLB. But it's a pretty good indication that if, say, the players and MLB go to war in the next year, the league's "everything is great" stance will not be easily maintained if someone tries to punch it in the mouth.
@HardballTalk Reminded of this. Manfred does not react well when he gets pushback, basically ever. Comes from being the behind-the-scenes negotiator as opposed to the public face for so many years. Has rarely if ever had to be diplomatic and, frankly, can't do it well.
@HardballTalk Related: one of the few issues MLB has not been able to just shrug off of late is tanking. Lots of public criticism about that, for good reason.
MLB does not take it well.
MLB does not take it well.
@HardballTalk Sources I've spoken to in the past couple of months have told me that MLB seethes privately about criticism of teams tanking. The stance is very much "how DARE they?" with little apparent acceptance that it is a thing they have done for which they should have to answer.
@HardballTalk Personally, I think it's a function of a broader dynamic in which, over the past decade or two, public criticism of MLB has mostly disappeared. Part of it is because money has flowed. Part of it is because the media who, in the past, had been critical, has been blunted.
@HardballTalk Owners/teams don't argue publicly. They've learned to keep it in-house. There has been no acrimony with players in a LONG time, making friction there recede almost entirely. Vast swaths of the media either work for MLB or rights holders or have simply disappeared.
@HardballTalk It's now news when someone like LeBatard asks a pointed question. Someone with some power -- MiLB -- going public is causing MLB to lose its cool.
As someone who likes chaos and confrontation, it's all fascinating, really. Heh.
As someone who likes chaos and confrontation, it's all fascinating, really. Heh.
@HardballTalk This thread is getting increasingly long, but there's an additional point to make here:
MLB ain't totally wrong on this stuff and MiLB are not totally righteous actors.
MLB ain't totally wrong on this stuff and MiLB are not totally righteous actors.
@HardballTalk There's something to be said, on the merits, of developing players in-house, having better controlled systems, less travel, etc. It's also the case that minor league owners are not uniformly great with how they run their businesses. We just hear less about 'em because it's local.
@HardballTalk As many have noted, if we were inventing player development from scratch today, we'd likely do it very differently.
@HardballTalk That said: (a) we're not inventing it today; there are existing institutions around which and with which change must be accomplished; and (b) MLB has been disingenuous about a good deal of this stuff, and they're simply looking to be subsidized. As usual.
@HardballTalk My points above are mostly ones about approach. Rather than work to change a complicated system, MLB figured they could Bigfoot their way into getting what they wanted with little pushback, and that's just crap.
